It is recommended that all students be able to pass the Letter Knowledge, Phoneme
Awareness, and the Alphabetic Principle subtests by the beginning of the first grade
(passing being no more than two errors). By the end of the first grade, students should be
able to pass the rest of the subtests. Students who are still struggling with any of these
measures in the second grade are at a very high risk for reading failure (See information on
the “consequences of reading failure” and the “Matthew Effect” at
www.balancedreading.com).